Conceptual Generations

I previously wrote about the generations of yourself. The concept that as you grow and mature in life, you become a new model or generation of who you are was paralleled to that of an iPhone. The important take away from that is that every now and then, you need to release a new version because you have maximized your previous capability with updates and improvements. In order to have room for more, you need a new version.

Today, I am writing about conceptual generations. This is another generational notion that is not likely on your radar as a meaning when you hear the word. The idea is that if you want an idea or concept to live beyond your own origination, you will need to create 5 generations of learner/teachers of that idea.

Here’s how it works. First you come up with a brilliant idea that you want to share with the world. Do you have the means to present your idea to the entire world? Do you have the capacity? With social media and YouTube and such, it may be physically possible, but still not likely. So you spend the rest of you life teaching people about your idea. What happens when you die? You’re gone, a bunch of people have learned some of your idea, but few or none have the whole picture. How do you ensure that your idea outlives your ability to teach it to others?

You are Generation 1 and you need to teach others (Gen 2). For the idea to live on, Gen 2 needs to teach Gen 3. The problem is that if Gen 2 teaches Gen 3 without first learning how to teach Gen 3, you end up with clarity issues (like a copy of a copy). So, Gen 1 needs to teach Gen 2 the idea (i1) AND how to teach the idea (i2) to Gen 3. Now we get to a point where Gen 3 needs to teach Gen 4. The problem is the same as before. Gen 3 needs to learn how to teach the idea. This means the Gen 1 needs to teach Gen 2 (i1), (i2), AND (i3). (i3) is how to teach someone to teach someone else. So now Gen 1 is teaching Gen 2 how to teach Gen 3 to teach Gen 4. That’s the pattern and it needs to go for one more generation to become sustainable beyond the Gen 1 originator. This can get pretty confusing to discuss as is better communicated with a diagram.

So here you can see that Gen 2 is learning a lot and being equipped to equip. I hope this makes sense.